December 6, 1894J 



NATURE 



139 



sharp end forward) into the persons who were mountinp, 

 and he said, " Friend, keep on board thine own ship." Ic is 

 in that sense that I venture to interpret the principle of stand- 

 ing and waiting to which I have referred. I was convinced as 

 firmly as I have ever been convinced of anything in my life 

 that the " Origin of Species " was a ship laden wiih a cargo of 

 great value, and which, if she were permitted to pursue her 

 ■course, would reach a verit-able scientific Golconda, and I 

 thought it my duty, however naturally averse I might be to 

 ■figliiing, to bid those who would disturb her beneficent opera- 

 tions to keep on board their own ship. If it has pleased the 

 Royal Society to recognise such poor services as I may have 

 ren'lered in that capacity I am very glad, because I am as much 

 convinced now as I was thirty-four years ago that the theory 

 propounded by Mr. Darwin, I mean that which he propiunded 

 — not that which has been reported to be his by too many ill- 

 ■instiucted, both friends and foes — has never yet been shown to 

 te inconsistent with any positive observations, and if I may use 

 a phrase which I know has been objected to and which I use in 

 a totally different sense from that in which it was first proposed 

 ty its first propounder, I do believe that on all grounds of pure 

 science it "holds the field," as the only hypothesis at present 

 tefore us which has a sound scientific foundation. It is quite 

 possible that you will apply to me the remark that has often 

 teen applied to persons in such a position as mine, that we are 

 apt to exaggerate the importance of that to which our lives 

 have been more or less devoted. But I am sincerely of opinion 

 that the views which were propounded by Mr. Darwin 

 thirty-four years ago will be understood hereafter to maik 

 an epoch in the intellectual history of the human race. 

 They will modify the whole system of our thoughts and 

 opinions, and shape our most intimate convictions, I do not 

 know, I do not think anybody knows, whether the particular 

 •views which Darwin held will be fortified by the experience of 

 the ages which come after us. But of this thing I am perfectly 

 ■certain, that the present state of things has resulted from the 

 feeling of the smaller men who have followed him that they are 

 incompetent to bend the bow of Ulysses, and in consequence 

 many of them are preferring to employ the air-gun of mere specu- 

 lation. Those who wish to attain to some clear and definite 

 solution of the problems which Mr. Darwin was the first person 

 to sec before us in later times, must base themselves upon the 

 facts which are stated in his great work, and, still more, must 

 pur^ue their inquiries by the methods of which he was so brilliant 

 an exemplar throughout the whole of his life. Vou must have 

 his sagacity, his untiring search after the knowledge of fact, his 

 readiness always to give up a preconceived opinion tothat which 

 was demonstrably true, before you can hope to carry his doctrines 

 to their ultimate issue ; and whether the particular form in which 

 lie has put them before us may be such as is finally destined to 

 survive or not is more, I venture to think, than anybody is capable 

 at this present moment of saying. But this one thing is perfectly 

 certain — that it is only by pursuing his methods, by that won- 

 derful single-mindedness, devotion to truth, readiness to sacrifice 

 ■all tilings for the advance of definite knowledge, that we can hope 

 to come any nearer than we are at present to the truths which he 

 Struggled to attain. 



THE BA TTLE OF THE FORESTS.^ 



II. 



TN the sand-hills which traverse Nebraska from east to west 

 there are now found in eastern counties the sand-drowned 

 trunks of the western bull pine, and the same pine belonging to 

 the Pacific flora is found as.ociated with the black walnut of 

 the eastern region along the Xiobrara River. 



We may, however, divide the North American forest, accord- 

 ing to its botanical features, into two great forest regions, 

 namely, the Atlantic, which is in the main characterised by 

 broad-leaved trees, and the Pacific, which is made up almost 

 .vholly of coniferous species. 



In the Atlantic forest we can again discern several floral sub- 

 divisions, each of which shows special characteristics. The 

 souihernmosl coast and keys of Florida, although several degrees 

 north of the geographical limit of the tropics, present a truly 



* A lecture delivered by Prof. li. E. Fernow. Chief of the Forestry 

 Depart tiicnt of Agriculture, U.S.A., during the Brooklyn meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Continued from 

 page 119.) 



tropical forest, rich in species of the West Indian flora, which 

 here find* its most northern extension. There is no good reason 

 for calling this outpost semi-tropical, as is done on Sargent's 

 map, W'ith the mahogany, the mastic, the royal palm, the 

 mangrove, the sea grape, and some sixty more W'est Indian 

 specits represented, it is tropical in all but its geographic posi- 

 tion. That the northern flora joins the tropic forest here, and 

 thus brings together on this insignificant spot some hundred 

 species, nearly one quarter of all the species found in the Atlantic 

 forest, does not detract from its tropical character. 



On the other hand, the forest north of this region may be 

 called sub-tropical, for here the live and water oak, the mag- 

 nolia, the bay tree and holly, and many other broad-leaved trees 

 are mixed with the sabal and dwarf palmatto. As they retain 

 their green foliage throughout the winter, this region is truly 

 semi-tropical in character, and under the influence of the Gulf 

 Stream, extends in a narrow belt some twenty or twenty-live 

 miles in width along the coast as far north as North Carolina. 



While this ever-green, broad-leaved forest is more or less 

 confined to the rich hammocks and moister situations, the poor 

 sandy soils of this as well as of the more northern region are 

 occupied by pines ; and as those, especially the long leaf pine, 

 are celebrated all over the world, and give the great mercantile 

 significance to these forests, this region may well be called the 

 great southern pine belt. North of the evergreen subtropic 

 forest stretches the vast deciduous leaved forest of the Atlantic, 

 nowhere equalled in the temperate regions of the world in ex- 

 tent and perfection of form, and hardly in the number of 

 species. This designation applies to the entire area up to the 

 northern forest belt, for the region segregated on the 

 census map as the northern pine belt is still in the main the 

 dominion of the deciduous-leaved forest trees. On certain areas 

 pines and spruces are intermixed, and on certain soils, especially 

 gravelly drifts and dry sand plains, as on the pine barrens of 

 Northern Michigan, they congregate even to the exclusion of 

 other species. Instead, we can divide this deciduous-leaved 

 forest by a line running somewhere below the fortieth degree of 

 latitude, where with the northern limits of the southern mag- 

 nolias and other species we may locate in general the northern 

 limit of the southern forest flora. Northward from here, in 

 what may be called the " middle Atlantic forest," the deciduous 

 species rapidly decrease, and the coniferous growth predomi- 

 nates, until we arrive at the broad belt of the northern forest, 

 which, crossing from the .-Vtlantic to the Pacific, and composed 

 of only eight hardy species, takes its stand against the frigid 

 breath and icy hands of Boreas, 



.\bounding in streams, lakes, and swampy areas, the low 

 divides of this region are occupied by an open stunted forest of 

 black and white spruce, while the bottoms are held by the 

 balsam fir, larch or tamarack, poplar, dwarf birch and willow. 

 Tne white spruce, paper or canoe birch, baUam poplar and 

 aspen stretch their lines from the Atlantic to the Pacific over 

 the whole continent. 



On the Pacific side the subdivisions are rather ranked from west 

 to east. While the northern forest battles against the cold blasts 

 from icy fields, the front of the Pacific interior forest is wrestling 

 with the dry atmosphere of the plains and interior basin. Here, 

 on the driest parts, where the sage brush finds its home, the 

 ponderous bull pine is the foremost fighter, and where even this 

 hardy tree cannot succeed in the interior basin several species of 

 cedar hold the fort, in company with the nut pine, covering 

 with an open growth the mesas and lower mountain slopes. 

 Small and stunted, although of immense age, these valiant 

 outposts show the maiks of severe struggles for existence. 



On the higher, and therefore moister and cooler elevations, 

 and in the narrow canyons, where evaporation is diminished 

 and the soil is fresher, the sombre Douglas, Engelmann, and 

 blue spiuce, and the silver-foliaged white fir, join the pines or 

 take their place. 



With few exceptions, the same species, only of better de- 

 velopment, are found in the second parallel, which occupies the 

 western slopes of the .Siena Nevada. Additional forces here 

 strengthen the ranks, the great sugar pine, two noble firs, a 

 mighty larch, hemlocks and cedars vie with their leaders, the 

 big sequoias, in showing of what metal they are made. The 

 third parallel, occupied by the forest of the Coast Range, the 

 most wonderfully developed, although far from being the most 

 varied of this continent, is commanded by the redwood, with 

 the tide-land spruce, hemlock, and gigantic arborvitae -joining 

 the ranks. 



5-1 



